PEN-02 A Perfect World

A few years ago, I was driving my car and I came across a train that had jumped its tracks. And, of course, it just sat there going nowhere. When a train derails off the path it was made to follow, it simply sits there, and it’s one big mess.

Well, in the beginning of time, God laid a track, or a path, for his creation to follow and this path led toward a grand and glorious destiny for God’s creation. But time and again, human beings have failed to follow God’s path for his creation. We have derailed the world and ended up with one big mess.

In this series of lessons, we will be learning about the path that God laid down for his creation in the earliest years of world history — what we often call in Christian circles “creation ordinances.” And we will be exploring Genesis 1–11, often known as The Primeval History. These chapters of the Bible will help us see the amazing path God wanted the people of Israel to follow under the leadership of Moses. And they will also show us the path his people should follow even today.

We have entitled our first lesson, “A Perfect World” because we will focus our attention on Genesis 1:1–2:3, the passage where Moses first described how God shaped the world into a perfect order that greatly pleased him.

As we will see, this ideal world anticipated or foreshadowed the destiny toward which God took Israel in the days of Moses — the same destiny toward which God takes all his people throughout history. It not only shows us how things were in the beginning, but also how life should be now, and how our world will certainly be at the end of our age.

This lesson divides into four parts: First, we will present an overview of the primeval history of Genesis 1–11. Second, we will narrow our focus to Genesis 1:1–2:3, looking first at its literary structure. Third, we will investigate the original meaning of this portion of Genesis in the light of its structure. And fourth, we will look for the proper modern applications of this passage. Let’s begin with an overview of the entire primeval history of Genesis 1–11.

Our approach to Genesis 1–11 may seem a bit unusual at first. So, we should explain our basic strategy. At least three main ideas will guide our study of this part of the Bible: first, the inspiration of these chapters; second, the literary background behind these chapters; and third, the purpose for which these chapters were written.